Posted on 04/15/2011 1:31:44 PM PDT by RobFromGa
Atlas Shrugged Part 1 Quick Review- 5 stars!
Very faithful to Rand's ideas. I didn't feel like they skipped any major items... the back story with Francisco was hinted at and would have been too hard to develop completely.
Casting was superb. Hank (Hooray!) and Lillian (Boo!)Rearden and Ellis Wyatt (!!!) were done perfectly as was Wesley Mouch and the other moochers and looters. Dagny was good but it took about ten minutes for me to completely buy her in the role.
Pace was perfect... it kept moving at a fast speed, and I didn't want it to end.
Cinematography very good- hard to believe only cost about $5 million! The Rearden Metal bridge was great, as was the Colorado landscape shots...
Audience Reaction: Duluth, GA 12:25pm showing was about 80% full (there was noon showing in a larger theater already going) & audience reacted with enthusiasm throughout and Applause at end.
Can't wait for Part 2! I will be going back to see Part One more than once...
Minor nitpick- shouldn't have had the date 2016 on the movie, it is timeless.
I missed the whole Starnesville episode from the book where we actually see the Dark Ages arrive in a formerly industrialized section of Wisconsin. They glossed right over that.
I guess you haven't seen the entry for 4/14/2011 on the movie web site
Went to the 7:00 pm showing this evening with the family. Theater was about 85% full (everyone in the theater was behaving themselves, yeah!). Movie was fantastic! Yeah, it wasn’t a big budget, special effects laden flick...but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about the message, and brother, it worked (at least for me). Having read the book, I can honestly say that I thought the movie was very true to the source. We had gathered a group of eleven friends to go with us. All were impressed. Can’t wait for numbers 2 & 3!
WOW cool. Thank you!!
We bought the book after the movie :0)
I’d agree with other reviews that I read that said for those who hadn’t read it, the movie was a little fast right at the beginning, I’m not critiquing it though, I loved it. And my husband enjoyed it too. (And it was an amazing, polite, well-behaved crowd...we hadn’t gone to a movie in years so I wasn’t sure what to expect, lol.)
Oh, and our Netflix movie, “The Fountainhead,” came in the mail today, so we watched that one too.
I dream of Tommy Lee Jones as John Galt.
I am on my fourth or fifth time. I really was planning to just read Part One so it would be fresh in my mind, but I just can’t stop. It’s an amazing book. One bit of advice, don’t read “the speech”. That is, by far, the hardest part to get through. I’m not quite sure how to tell you what “speech” I am talking about without being a spoiler.
Read Billthedrill’s exgesis of The Speech (and all speeches) at the book club threads. It’s the easiest way to figure it out.
I use the image of Roger Ebert when I need to induce vomiting. Next best thing to Michael-the-Hut Moore.
Oh, you’re too funny Nan. Reminds me how I read the book, “Catch 22,” — in the bathtub. It took about a year but everyone said that book was so good. Well, I finished it (finally) and I still think it stunk. I must say, the first 100 pages of “Atlas Shrugged” were better than the first 100 pages of “Catch 22.” It just seemed so depressing. I’ve tried several times to read it, even tried to “read” it on audio tape and still couldn’t make it through. But, I promise, at everyone’s urging, I’ll give it another go.
And whoever had the idea about the bracelet, super idea. I loved that bracelet and want one!
I never paid any attention to her...with the book and now the movie, I thought I’d check her out a bit more thoroughly...
Oh noze... Throw that film in the trash and buy the book. Terrible movie... great book. My mom gave it to me when I was in architecture school because she thought it was about an architect... it changed my life.
The bracelet is available for sale at: http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/merchandise
Dang, too late, lol. But I like those old movies and Gary Cooper anyway :0)
(My dad was an architect before he retired, same with my grandfather...)
They just put it on their page yesterday...
Official Rearden Metal Bracelet
Proudly made in the U.S.A., this anodized aluminium alloy bracelet is an exact replica of the Rearden Metal Bracelet worn by Taylor Schilling (Dagny Taggart) and Rebecca Wisocky (Lillian Rearden) in Atlas Shrugged Part I.
I love it! Thank you!
I hope Parts 2 and 3 are made. The first part is just the context to set up the more dramatic scenes between the producers and the statists/collectivists. I liked the closing scene with the burning oil fields and the handwritten sign "It's all yours now, just the way I found it" or at least words to that effect.
I suspect the movie will generate plenty of merchandise from tee shirts to bracelets to hats etc. It will be a cult classic at the very least.
Agree pretty much with your review (post 17). One disappointment I had was they should have opened with the opening scene in the book, the one where Dagny is on the train that has stopped on the tracks due a malfunctioning signal light, everyone knows the light has malfunctioned, yet no one is doing anything about it, just sitting there waiting. Dagny takes charge and starts barking orders, transformed from what you thought was a meek, blonde haired “girl” into the leader we soon see her to be. I thought that scene was very powerful in the book and told a lot more of the story in one short summary. That scene is missing altogether, and I was hoping to see that on the big screen.
However, for those of us who have read the book, I thought they did a pretty decent job for the first part.
Which theater in Anaheim? I;m in Hollywood/L.A. area.
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